Wallicher Falls and Tchupala Falls

Wooroonooran National Park, Queensland, Australia

About Wallicher Falls and Tchupala Falls


Hiking Distance: 2km round trip (both falls)
Suggested Time: 45-60 minutes

Date first visited: 2008-05-17
Date last visited: 2008-05-17

Waterfall Latitude: -17.6051
Waterfall Longitude: 145.77276

Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

Wallicher Falls and Tchupala Falls were a pair of waterfalls sharing the same trailhead off the Palmerston Highway not far from Nandroya Falls. I probably could have described each of these waterfalls in their own page, but I figured that it would make more sense to include them together since it was only natural that we did the entire Y-shaped route to take in both waterfalls in one excursion. Similar to Nandroya Falls, this pair of falls seemed to be on the obscure side this side of the Atherton Tablelands vicinity as it was very easy to whiz by its trailhead while driving along the Palmerston Highway between Innisfail and Millaa Millaa.

Our hike began from the trailhead for both waterfalls right at the Palmerston Highway. After about 200m, we reached a trail junction where either had to hike the remainder of the trail to Tchupala Falls (360m from the junction, or 560m one-way from the trailhead) or hike the remainder of the trail to Wallicher Falls (500m from the junction, or 700m one-way from the trailhead). The overall hiking distance for the entire Y-shaped route was about 2km, which Julie and I completed in about 45 minutes.

The first waterfall we visited was the Tchupala Falls, which was the shorter walk. We followed the straightforward track to an informal but partially obstructed view of the segmented waterfall. Unfortunately, the remainder of the track leading to a better view of the falls was closed due to trail damage from Cyclone Larry. Thus, our photos of this falls were on the disappointing side as we never were able to get a clean view of it without going beyond the barricades (which we didn’t do). This somewhat narrow dual waterfall looked to be around 10-15m tall.

Afterwards, we returned to the Y-junction and then proceeded to do the out-and-back hike to Wallicher Falls (I swore I saw a sign that spelled it Wallacha Falls). Anyhow, we followed this straightforward track to an established overlook where we were able to appreciate this wider yet more pleasing falls. The photo shown at the top of this page was of this waterfall. It was probably on the order of 10m tall but it was far wider than it was tall.

Tchupala_Falls_001_05162008
Tchupala_Falls_002_05162008
Tchupala_Falls_008_05162008
Tchupala_Falls_011_05162008
Tchupala_Falls_016_05162008
Wallicher_Falls_002_05162008


Both Wallicher Falls and Tchupala Falls were within the Palmerston section of Wooroonooran National Park between Millaa Millaa and Innisfail (just like Nandroya Falls). The easy-to-miss signposted trailhead was about 3km east of Nandroya Falls (between a small pullout area on the north side of the highway where we parked the car and the Misty Mountains turnoff further west). Overall, it was about 30km west of Innisfail (at the start of the Palmerston Hwy [Hwy 25]) or 25km east of Millaa Millaa along the Palmerston Hwy. It was just east of the Misty Mountains turnoff.

For geographical context, Innisfail was 88km (over an hour drive) south of Cairns and 260km (3 hours drive) north of Townsville.

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Tagged with: wooroonooran, palmerston, national park, cyclone larry, tablelands, atherton, queensland, australia, waterfall, millaa millaa, innisfail



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